CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced at Facebook Connect 2021 that they are moving at the intended pace on their new project code named “Project Nazare” which are “fully-fledged augmented reality glasses”. There may not be any hardware for show yet, but it is clear as day that Facebook is working on augmented reality headsets.
Zuckerberg says, “The ultimate goal here is true augmented reality glasses. And we’ve been working on that too.” He also said, “Today I want to show you an experience that we’ve been working on for Project Nazare, which is code name for our first full augmented reality glasses.” Zuckerberg then narrated a usual scene in a quick simulated concept where some users were messaging over Whatsapp and organizing a game night. The avatars of the friends show up in the user’s view and their gaming begins.
It has been hinted that the augmented reality glasses will be only 5mm thick which is just over 3/16 inches but there is still quite a ways to go before the hardware is completed. “There’s a lot of technical work to get this form-factor and experience right. We have to fit hologram displays, projectors, batteries, radios, custom silicon chips, cameras, speakers, sensors to map the world around you and more into glasses that are about 5mm thick. So, we still have a ways to go with Nazare, but we’re making good progress.”
The company has also released a demo of smart home experiences that are assistant related which were made possible by Project Aria, Facebook’s headset prototype that is full of sensors and went into testing phase last year. Aria does not contain any kind of Augmented Reality display so it can be considered a steppingstone to the kind of Augmented Reality glasses that Facebook keeps aiming for. Project Nazare could very well be being built from that same research but there is no way for us to tell what stage of productization that they are at with them.
The company stated in a blog post, “Our first fully-fledged AR glasses – Project Nazare – are still a few years out but we’re excited by the progress we’ve made and look forward to the road ahead.” It is clear that we can expect some great technology coming from this company in the near future.